Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

A post for students in my database course:
https://hackscience.education/2025/06/27/what-exactly-is-nosql-its-more-nuanced-than-you-think/

A post for students in my database course:
https://hackscience.education/2025/06/27/the-data-ecosystem-unpacking-data-lakes-data-warehouses-and-data-marts/

“This is what I need in order to teach....”

“This is what my students need in order to learn....”

These answers do not always overlap.

“Inside every working anarchy, there is an old-boy network.”

Our emotions, motivation, attention affect what we learn as well as the novelty of the experience and where, when, and who else was there during the experience all matter when #learning.

“Not everything we remember results from reward or punishment.” I sure wish this was more widely known. #education #learning #teaching

Dear teachers: If you believe “my job is to give them information,” you are wrong.

The greatest value faculty give to students is the relationship grounded in good feedback given in thought-provoking assignments, not the content of lectures.

We all have a responsibility to react and respond ethically, and this begins by understanding what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

“The delicate balance between these emergent technologies, privacy, ethics, and access to student data remains a contested topic. And given that many systems are now cloud-based, this raises the specter of potential data misuse.” Truer words are not often seen in reports.

All of those wonderful models you have for instruction... if you rely on them indefinitely, then you are not understanding them. #teaching

Any residual interaction that is available when lecturing face-to-face is lost when lecturing moves online.

When I begin phrasing a question to a leader who interrupts and answers the expected question before I’m finished (asking a different one), I realize the organization is in trouble.

I’m becoming convinced that “professional neutrality” is an oxymoron.

When well done, the work of some professions causes controversy. I place #education in that group. Well-educated #students challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and question... all of those result in controversy. #schools #highered #highschool

Sometimes when I talked with faculty and teachers about what their students will create, I see very puzzled looks.

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers

The “big idea” #leaders who tell others “just make it happen” often don’t realize their ideas are actually not that great.

If you think the problems you face today are the same ones you faced previously and that the same solutions that worked previously will work again, you are not paying attention.

“Just as the spirit of the artist is in the things the artist makes, the spirit of the child is in the things the child makes. True education helps children discover and revel in that spirit.”
- Friedrich Froebel